The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1887-04-02
AN AMERICANS EXPERIENCE
IN SOUTH AMERICA.
Destruction of Valparaiso on Gala
Occasion - How the City of
Mendoza Looked Alter
AN Uphcavai.

America. lie las Oecn giving his earth
quake experiences in that country TO a
Cincinnati Eaquirer correspondent my
first experience, sa d the Colonel, was
singular one. 1t was one Of the his
tOric earthquakes in South America, and
although | was in the midst of it, for
some strange reason, | did not feel the
awful shock which Frustrated city and
almost destroyed il, and which inspired
Others with the most awful terror. In
fact the work was done before | realized
what was going on"
"Give me your experiences.
The earthquake to which refer was
the one that practically destroyed Val
paraiso in 1851. 1t was a gala day in
the city, and PREPARATIONS had been made
to receive the President of Chill, who
was coming up from Santiago. All the
public and most of the rivate buildings
were gayly decorated, and the populace
was on the qui vive in expectation Of the
alcade would strike upon the Grand
Plaza, everybody would rush at out ex-
pecting it to be the Presidential party,
only to be disappointed. Twas stopping
at hotel which opened on! upon the
Plaza, ard had been fooled number of
times, and had resolved not to 90 out
again until had sure thing on it, In
! the principal room of the hotel the C was
large round table, gathered about
which were Il number of naval officers
and sailors from foreign ports. drinking
wine and celebrating the occasion
in fine style. In the centre of the
; table was a lamp, used for lighting
the room at night, nearly three
feet high. surmountel by large
glass globe. The officers and sailors
were noisy and full of fun, and | sat
there enjoying their hilarity, when all
at once there came a noise as though
many squadrons of cavalry and artillery
had swept into the Grand Plaza. There
were wild and unusual cries outside and
l said to myself the President is here at
last, but I'll iust wait to make sure OF 1t
From the way things began to shake
and tremble, | thought that the Presi-
dent had all the heavy artillery of the
Republic in his train, with a view Of
showing his greatness to such strangers
as might be in town. The clamor out
side increased, bu; there were no hip
hip hurrahs. Their were strange and
! wild ,aculatiOns. the meaning of which
l could not comprehend, and quicker
than it takes me to tell it, all the jewellers
at the round table ran out of doors ex-
cept one ship captain who was more
than half seas over, and sat glaring
around as though he was dazed Then
the wine glasses began to leap like
frogs from the table and dash themselves
! to pieces on the concrete floor. The tall
lamp began to gyrate and rec! like
drunken man, whereat the captain
grasped it with both hands and shouted
; 'Put down your helm. Steady there
Port your helm, you lubber, Hold her
| hard-a-port. Don't you see we're run
ming right into the breakers Leaving
the captain laundering out his commands
to an imaginary helmsman, and holding
on to the lamp like grim death, stepped
outside to see what the unearthly com
motion meant. The street. as far as
could see, and the Plaza were filled with
uncovered human beings, kneeling and
beating their breasts as though in the
agonie, of supplcation. This Struck me
rs being singular way to receive a
democratic ruler. Then could see the
lofty buildings tumbling into heaps of
ruins, like chlldren's Lighthouses, and
the long street in front of me looked
like huge strip of carpet with
a giant at each end of it shak-
ing the dust out of it, The I'M
dulations were perfectly natural, and
the dust rose in binding masses. Then
l realized that we were in the midst of
an earthquake. Although felt the awful
tremors of the earth, have no recollec-
ton of the shock or shocks whioh throw